I wanted to change the rules of engagement, asking for more- from fewer. I was insisting that we had to have only the best people...If you wanted excellence, at a minimum, the ambience had to reflect excellence.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of high standards and excellence in a team's composition and work environment.
Jack Welch's quote highlights the necessity of transforming the standard practices within an organization to achieve excellence. He advocates for surrounding oneself with top talent and ensuring that the surrounding environment fosters a culture of high performance, suggesting that to attain exceptional results, both the people and the conditions must be of the highest quality.
In practice
In a corporate training session on leadership styles.
You've got to eat while you dream. You've got to deliver on short-range commitments, while you develop a long-range strategy and vision and implement it. The success of doing both. Walking and chewing gum if you will. Getting it done in the short-range, and delivering a long-range plan, and executing on that.
A leader's role is not to control people or stay on top of things, but rather to guide, energize and excite.
Control your own destiny or someone else will.
The idea flow from the human spirit is absolutely unlimited. All you have to do is tap into that well. I don't like to use the word efficiency. It's creativity. It's a belief that every person counts.
An overburdened, overstretched executive is the best executive, because he or she doesn't have the time to meddle, to deal in trivia, to bother people.
Genuine leadership comes from the quality of your vision and your ability to spark others to extraordinary performance.
A man-of-war is the best ambassador.
We believe that creating an inclusive and diverse environment is not only the right thing to do, but it also makes our company stronger, smarter, and more innovative - which helps us better serve the needs of our clients, our people, and our communities.
I have walked majestically with kings and queens and presidents and other heads of states.
To create an organization that's adaptable and innovative, people need the freedom to challenge precedent, to 'waste' time, to go outside of channels, to experiment, to take risks and to follow their passions.
And here one must not that hatred is acquired just as much by means of good actions as by bad ones; and so, as I said above, if a prince wishes to maintain the state, he is often obliged not to be good; because whenever that group which you believe you need to support you is corrupted, whether it be the common people, the soldiers, or the nobles, it is to your advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them; and then good actions are your enemy.
Great leaders don't need to act tough. Their confidence and humility serve to underscore their toughness.
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